Yorkshire County Cricket Club should find themselves on a much more level playing field at Scarborough next season following the current renovation of the outfield at North Marine Road.
The cost of the work is expected to be around £20,000 but Scarborough Cricket Club will receive a grant of £16,000 from the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Work began in mid-September with the application of a herbicidal spray which killed off all the grass on the outfield before the soil was cultivated to a depth of eight inches and then levelled and re-seeded.
The new grass is being left to grow and should be ready for the first cut to take place in late February or March.
The Scarborough Cricket Festival made a profit of £48,270 this year but the club still expects to record a small operational loss in 2004, this partly being due to reduced revenue through Yorkshire losing both of their Championship matches inside three days.
The 119th Festival next summer will start on Sunday, August 21, when a Lashings XI will play an Old England XI in a Dickie Bird Foundation match.
The following day it is hoped to stage a Twenty-20 match between Yorkshire and Durham but this has still to be confirmed.
Yorkshire meet Durham in the Championship on Wednesday, August 24, and the curtain comes down on the Festival on Sunday, August 28, when Yorkshire play Derbyshire in the totesport League.
Yorkshire chairman Robin Smith will be Festival president in 2005.
Updated: 10:38 Thursday, December 23, 2004
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